Amir is an enigma. I see both positives and negatives with his progress and lack of.

The analogy I will use with Amir is this; in football when the offensive line is consistently off-sides every game (see Lions), it is a coaching issue and a simple lack of discipline.

Amir HAS NOT been afforded the opportunity for consistent, effective coaching.

Somehwere during his 2nd and third year in the league, there was a noticeable improvement in his game, that's the way it's supposed to be, at some point the growth and progression stopped. The kid appeared to have a lot of potential.

I am very disappointed in Michael Curry and was one of the few people here who advocated for his hiring, now I am ready to bury my head in the sand on this one.

Click to expand...

Amir - True he was coming along on schedule earlier which is something we cannot say about Darko. It has to be the coaching.

I was 100% behind the Curry hire as well. He fit all the criteria of what a head coach should be. Time to admit we were all wrong and move on. Of course its all up to Dumars.

So, think about this for a minute. Sheed has attempted 79 shots in the paint this entire season in 2,113 minutes played. Amir has attempted 129 shots in the paint this year in 889 minuntes played... and he's probably had less than a half dozen feeds from the guards.

Conclusion, Amir's scraps > Sheed's designed plays.

Click to expand...

If you post up on the left or right block you are outside of the paint. The stats are misleading.

The losses have been staggering. And if you take away the 7 game win streak, where Amir was heavily involved in, and the 2nd half was totally disastrous.

Click to expand...

Since our high water mark of the season at 22-12 after the 7 game winning streak we have been 17-31. 17-31 extrapolated is a 29-53 season. This is the loss ratio that we have been watching since then. If it seems like there have been twice as many losses as wins - there nearly has been. Its been a rough 2nd half of the season and the most brutal finish since probably sometime back in the 90's.

I do not believe this. No way. Yes, Sheed may hang around at the perimeter like a 35+ year old single does at Strip Clubs. But no way he took only 79shots in the paint this season. Not as a PF. Please tell me you're making these stats up.

Click to expand...

I did not make up that stat. Sheed attempts about 1 shot in the paint per game and he actually makes a shot in the paint about once every 2 games. It's pathetic. The dude takes 89% jump shots. 44% of his shots are 3-pointers. And to highlight his lazy offensive game, keep in mind that he barely snuck over the 100 mark for free throw attempts on the year with 101. He actually made 78 free throws (compared to 245 in his heyday). As I highlighted earlier in the year, Sheed could have become the first player since Manut Bol to block over 100 shots and attempt less than 100 free throws. He fell short on the blocks and barely cleared the free throw hurdle.

So, to summarize, our starting center makes 1 shot in the paint every 2 games and makes about 1 free throw per game.

If that were true, then the old + young combo of Dyess + Amir would be a winner, which it is not. It is the only player pair with Amir that has a substantial negative... and it is the most negative on the entire team. Amir + Maxiell fared much better.

Also, the old + young combo of Sheed + Maxiell and Dyess + Maxiell were both very bad, which further discredits that theory.

Amir was in the right place at the right time for the last 3 seasons. I would actually argue that he has been in the wrong place at the wrong time (i.e. playing in Det with coaches that don't believe in him behind vets that get all the minutes without earning them).

Click to expand...

Last year, it was pointed out that JMAX and Dyess was our worst pairing of bigs. This year, that pairing is at 37%. The scary thing, it was used a ton this year, with Curry sending this pair out there 45 times. Curry does not learn. He does not look at stats.

Before we assume JMAX is such a poor choice for a player, look at what happens when he is paired with better defenders. Brown 51%. Afflalo and Amir, 49%.

As muddled as our rotation has been, with none of JMAX, Amir, Afflalo, nor Kwame getting regular roles thruout the season, and this continued experiment of using Herrmann as an NBA player, its a wonder any of them show anything on the stats.

To avoid me having to switch threads, this could have been our bench all season long:

Bynum, Afflalo, Amir, JMAX, Kwame. But we would have still lost game after game with Dyess and Sheed paired to end games, where they consistently lose.

As a matter of fact, with Curry as a coach, having Dyess around just lets him find a way to lose games.

We should have did this, from the Billups trade on:

1) Release AI. It all turned out to be a farce anyway as far as him fitting with the team. There were rumors that he was injured before he got here, and nothing has dispelled those rumors, at least in my mind. (I am talking about fan observations, fans claiming AI was no long really AI, with whatever injury he is hiding.

2) Start Stuckey, Rip, Tay, Amir, Sheed.

3) Bench is Bynum, Afflalo, Mejia, JMAX, Kwame.

4)Dyess is the 11th man, brought in for foul trouble with our centers, and to add outside shooting if we need it.

5) Sharpe is the 12th guy, playing some power forward when Amir and JMAX are fouling too much.

For those who want to say something about Mejia not being on the team. Hey, look at what we got. Herrmann. Mejia is one heck of a defender. And he loves to bust it inside anytime he gets the chance. (not good at finishing actually, but he does draw fouls.)

Herrmann was another story of political correctness. Deeply believe that Pistons signed played Herrmann jsut to play good will to Stern as well as all non-American players that we were loyal to global policy like what we drafted Darko for. In this league there always are many things occurred behind the scenes and no one will tell.

If he hired me to be his online PR spokesman, I would issue the following release...

...

3) Developing a post game/ being weak around the basket- Let's compare him to our best post player... Sheed. Amir has the highest FG% on the team. He shoots .633 from in the paint and attempts 81% of his shots from there. 34% of his shot attempts are tip-ins and dunks. Sheed, the master of the post, attempts 11% of his shots from in the paint, tips-in or dunks 4% of the time, and shoots an overall .589 from the interior.

So, think about this for a minute. Sheed has attempted 79 shots in the paint this entire season in 2,113 minutes played. Amir has attempted 129 shots in the paint this year in 889 minuntes played... and he's probably had less than a half dozen feeds from the guards.

Conclusion, Amir's scraps > Sheed's designed plays.

Click to expand...

O.k., a PR release might sound like that.

But of course, just because Sheed is doing all those things doesn't make Amir a post player. He still has no post game, no back to the basket moves, no way to score other than boards and tips (and that weird Wilkesian jump shot).

Which is in no way meant to diminish scoring from boards and tips, just saying that doesn't make you a post player.

But of course, just because Sheed is doing all those things doesn't make Amir a post player. He still has no post game, no back to the basket moves, no way to score other than boards and tips (and that weird Wilkesian jump shot).

Which is in no way meant to diminish scoring from boards and tips, just saying that doesn't make you a post player.

Click to expand...

My point is just this... Sheed is considered a good post player. But he rarely scores from the post or the paint. Amir creates his own PIP in a way that is incredibly efficient for the team. Instead of being the first and only option on a possession and then either making or missing, Amir converts others misses into points. And he collects this garbage at such a high rate that his gross points in the paint dwarfs Sheeds, despite the huge minutes disparity.

If Amir had a true traditional post game, that would be nice. But we don't really need it. Why not just call a play for Sheed instead and force him to the block? Then Amir is available to get the miss.

If Amir had a Dyess-like jump shot, that would also be nice. But why not have Rip, Tay, Sheed, or someone else do that and have Amir scrapping to get the miss?

At this stage, Amir is a spectacular offensive garbage man and could be a true weapon on the break. All the things that he is missing would need to be developed and may never come to fruition. If he did develop those things, he'd probably be a $15M/year player and we wouldn't sign him anyway.